Musings from the Stress Less staff regarding the current state of stress in our lives and what we are or are not doing about it. Contributed by psychologists,exercise physiologists,dietitians,and just plain marketing folks.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Stress Less® Worldview

The world is
actually changing right before our eyes and whether we like it or not, we both
benefit and suffer at the same time!

We are all
witnessing the first and only "coming together" of the global
economic system where we can see on a daily basis the "cause and
effects" of different countries/economies (European Union) and how these
changes affects on our own lives and personal finances.

The
"Globalization" of technologies that connect us like satellites, cables,
wireless, internet, mobile phones etc. have created an instantaneous
communication that was predicted and now is real and operating. Continents, countries,
unions, republics, states, cities, towns, households, families, and individuals
are now able to connect, communicate, trade, educate or negotiate in an
instant.

On one level
it is a marvelous feat of engineering to be able to connect to anyone in the
world, anytime you choose. On the other level, it begins a period of "uncharted
waters" where we try to sort out how this system will really work and what
are the real affects it will have on our societies and personal lives.

Stress is
basically described as your competence or level of control you feel that you have
on your situation. When you lose this control, you experience various degrees of stress. As an example, you have a
checking account and have enough money in the bank to feel good. However, when
that money is depleted and bills are still due, for any number of reasons, you
begin to feel the stress. And as the money is reduced, your stress levels go up
in proportion. If you have the ability to control the situation and replenish
your account, you may go back to feeling less stress. However, when you have no
ability to refurbish your bank account, you begin to experience chronic stress
and this starts an internal release of hormones/chemicals that will eventually
destroy your body and reduce your life span, unless you learn how to manage
your stress levels.

Control is
everything! However, now that the day-to-day level of control is being driven
by the instantaneous worldwide system we have built, we are not sure of how we
can control our levels of stress. In a split second, the floor can come out
from just a tiny event. A small,
apparently insignificant, place in the world could affect each of us or maybe a
select few. We have no control over this and it is exacerbated by everyone
having exposure to this event and their potential reactions.

So, how can
we solve this dilemma? First and foremost, understand your stress level and
what causes them.

Learn different stress management techniques you can
incorporate into your daily life (breathing, meditation, visualization ,relaxation,
prayer etc). Expand your worldview to incorporate our new global reality and
that all people come from the same place, and most think similar thoughts and
share the same emotional makeup and aspirations to succeed and be good in life.

Try to adopt
a "healthy" lifestyle with a good combination of diet, exercise, sleep
and relaxation.

And maybe
most important, have a good basic level of "trusted and true" friends
in a social network that you can talk to and socialize with. Have a
"confidant" you can release your frustrations and feelings to and try
to get a good "feedback" relationship where your trusted secrets are
shared with each other or a group.

The world is
moving fast and all we can do is just hang on and do our part to fit in without
getting overwhelmed, because eventually "good will and fairness" will overcome the "evil" in human
affairs.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

How to
Become a Master of Life

Do you sometimes feel stressed and fed-up with life? Want to be
happy? Joyful? Well I wonder if joy really is the state to aim for... Is it even
possible?

When you think about it, intense happiness and joy are, by
their nature, short lived. Note the use of the words 'by their nature.' This
implies that you cannot artificially sustain joy, say by maintaining or
increasing the stimulus which produced it.

You know those Amazonian
insect-eating plants? Once an insect has triggered the plant to close, no amount
of further stimulation will have the slightest effect for several hours. You can
put that plant on a lead and take it for a walk through a swarm of flies, and
its lips will remain stubbornly sealed.

Our 'joy' mechanism is
similar.

Once triggered, it activates, and then a certain time period
must elapse before it can be triggered again. It is has filled its purpose; I
will explain what that is in a moment.

The same is true of intense
happiness. We feel this fleeting, wonderfully positive response when one of our
needs starts to be met.

Carefully note those last words.

I did not
say 'when one of our needs is fully met.' Joy or intense happiness is our reward
to ourselves for taking good care of the organism, just as pain is the
opposite.

Our NeedsWe have many needs,
as I am sure you know.

First in the hierarchy come our physical needs
(food, water, warmth, safety, shelter, sex, touch etc...). Many of these are
essential for our physical survival and so these become pressing if not met. We
feel intense and desperate pain (thirst, hunger, cold) and an intense joy at the
first sip of water, morsel of food or warmth of the blanket thrown around our
shoulders. But this quickly wears off because that need has now been satisfied.
More (or prolonged) warmth, more food or more water bring diminishing returns in
happiness.

Soon we pass into boredom and indifference about those needs.
We decline the third helping of swan's breast and wearily wave away the fifth
overflowing goblet of mead and... isn't it getting a little warm in here? Can
somebody please stop throwing peasants onto the fire...

Eventually, other
needs come to the surface - the need to be cool, the need to rest and digest.
Whereas before, the cold wind caused the most intense agony and you longed for a
good crackling fire to warm your bottom against, now the cold breeze from the
open window feels good against your face.

You feel a momentary flash of
joy...

How It All BeganIn mankind's
distant past, our physical needs were mostly all we took care of. Food, water,
shelter, sex, warmth - that was what it was all about.

Fast forward one
million years and many of us have cracked the 'physical needs' thing. Douglas
Adams described the three stages of man's evolution as "How shall we eat?" "What
shall we eat?" and "Where shall we do lunch?" Well, we're at the 'doing lunch'
stage now, at least in the Western world. For the main part we are all more than
adequately fed, watered and housed. Actually, this is a gross understatement -
we luxuriate in a massive surplus of these things.

But we are far more
than a collection of physical needs. We also have a whole range of intellectual
and emotional needs. We also have 'spiritual' needs in the sense of wanting
answers to "what's it all about?" questions and wanting to make sense of our
life as a whole and attain meaning.

Which Are More Important?The temptation here is to
class these 'higher level' needs as less important than the lower level. In just
one way, they are.

Non-fulfilment of lower level needs often leads to
death - the actual extinction of the organism. Not filling higher level needs
rarely has this effect. But there, the difference ends.

The purpose of
life is not brute survival at any cost. The purpose is to survive as a man or
woman, with all that this implies. To both survive and to thrive. Thriving
requires that your higher level needs are also met. If they are not met, the
result will be misery, defeat, low self esteem and low energy.

If too
many of your needs are not met for a long period, the result will be depression
in all of its guises and possibly even psychosis or suicide. Yes, lack of water
will kill the organism called 'man' in a few days; but solitary confinement will
kill a man (not the organism but his spirit) in a few months.

Starvation
will kill a woman in two weeks; but total lack of love, warmth or affection will
kill a woman (not the organism but her spirit) in a few short years.
I do not
mean to imply that men and women have a different set of needs. They do not. All
humans share an identical set of needs.

The Cyclical Nature of
NeedsOur higher level needs are also cyclical. One example should
suffice.

We have a need for companionship - we are social creatures by
nature. This implies that our need for companionship is not optional. If we do
not fill this need we start to feel pain. So imagine now being in solitary
confinement (enforced or accidental).

After two or three days you feel
discomfort. As the days of solitude accrue, you feel more intense pain - the
pain of deep loneliness and the strong desire to see another human face or hear
a voice.

If this continues indefinitely, the result is depression and
even suicide. Can you possibly imagine that you might say: "Leave me alone! I
want to be by myself! I need my space!"? No, this seems inconceivable. But let
us see...

Suppose after months of confinement, you receive a visitor.
What intense joy! What rapture! You cling on to the person, greedily devouring
every line and wrinkle in their face; sucking up their words like a parched
traveler in a desert.

Too Much of a Good
Thing?Now imagine a second visitor and a third -
all friends and much loved family. Such happiness! You greet them all warmly.
Now a fourth and a fifth; soon fifty well-wishers and friends are crowded into
your room.

Hours pass, you start to feel weary. So many people, so much
talk. You start to long for some peace and quiet. But your guests have no
intention of going. They stay and stay - for hours, then days. They crowd your
bedroom whist you sleep, lovingly watching over you. They crowd your living room
whilst you are awake, cuddling you, kissing you, touching you - saying nice
things.

Gradually it becomes unbearable. You long for solitude. Your need
for companionship has been sated and your need for space and quiet is now
urgent. You scream out in pain: "Please! Will you all just GO AWAY! I want to be
alone! I need space!"

To dark mutterings of “Well! Of all the
ungrateful...” they stalk off into the night, leaving you with that which you
most need at present... solitude.

And so it goes on, round and round. You
could call this a 'cycle of needs.'

I like to imagine this as one of the
those Hi Fi volume meters made up of moving illuminated bars (like a bar
chart).

Each bar represents a need, the current level of the bar
indicating the intensity of that need at any one moment. They never stand still.
They dance up and down as each need is either met, or comes to the foreground
demanding to be met.

The further below the mid line a bar drops, the more
pain you feel. This triggers you into action to get that need met and hopefully
the bar comes up to midway - the object is to keep it there.

If it goes
above midway, you have overfilled that need (too much food, too much warmth, too
much companionship); this also causes pain and triggers you to further
action.

[Aside: Can you have too much of seemingly positive things like
love or harmony? Sure you can! Imagine a cloying, overbearing lover who will not
leave your side for one second and who strums lutes below your lighted window
each night - or a 100% harmonious world with never an argument, never a
disagreement, everything always being perfect.]

You could say that
everything you do in life is a strategy for keeping those bars all in a line, in
the middle. Often our strategies are misguided and even counterproductive, but
still the intention is to fill a need.

No Final ResultOf course
this is a dynamic thing, like juggling. It is never static.

There is
never a time - not once in your entire life - where you can sit back and admire
your straight line of bars, secure in the knowledge that they will remain that
way for longer than a few moments.

A juggler can never relax her
concentration and have the balls remain in a perfect arc above her head. And
here's the really important bit: even when those bars are in a line, it does not
produce joy or ecstatic happiness. These, as we have seen, are our brief reward
for starting to fill an urgent, chronic need.

So what do you think is the
emotion corresponding to a full set of well-filled
needs?
Contentment.

Now we are getting closer to a sustainable and
desirable state to aim for.

Everyone thinks they want to be blissfully
happy, (in this particular article I am using this word in the sense of intense
happiness bordering on joy.) In fact, this is unsustainable by any means - just
as the fly trap cannot munch its way through an endless queue of suicidal
bluebottles. It is not in the nature of the plant to do this. It is not in our
nature to feel constant joy.

This is such an important point that I want
you to be very clear about it. As an organism, it is not the case that our
purpose is to move towards a state of permanent intense happiness (joy), any
more than the juggler aims to attain a perfect frozen arc of equally-spaced
balls above her head so that she might relax, arms folded.

To achieve this, evolution
has provided us with two important feelings: pain and pleasure. Pain is the
stick, goading us away from danger, chronic lack, or massive excess. Pleasure is
the carrot, enticing us to act in a way that gets it just right - perfectly
balanced. Both have the purpose of getting us to act - to do something to
restore equilibrium.

Once equilibrium has been achieved, the feeling is
not one of intense, prolonged happiness (that is our reward for starting to fill
a much neglected need.) The result is equilibrium for the organism and we
experience this as a quality of contentment.

Become a
Master Juggler of LifeIf we become a master juggler of life and
get the hang of keeping those tricky bars all in a row, or balls in the air, our
reward is deep and lasting contentment.

Since words have many meanings,
let me be a little more specific about this state. You feel that all is right
with your world (which, of course, it is). You feel calm, in flow, certain, in
focus, open, poised, sensitive and clear.

Other people will feel a very
special quality about you and want to be close to it - they crave it too, just
as every human being does. Life seems easy for you. You wonder why on earth you
struggled and strained for so many years, wracked by guilt, angst, pain and
unhappiness.

The reason is that you were not, at that point, a master of
life.

To push the juggler analogy a teensy bit further; top jugglers like
Brad Byers spend years learning exactly how to keep all of those balls or clubs
flying in an arc above his head. I imagine that at times it seemed impossible;
he felt like giving up. He was probably often frustrated, angry and despairing
about ever being able to do such a difficult thing. But having mastered it, the
process now is almost effortless for him. When juggling, he is in a 'flow' state
- not struggling, sweating and striving to maintain the arc, but calm, certain,
almost in a meditative state.

Happiness Is Not
NaturalIs contentment the 'natural' human state?

Well,
that depends on what you mean by 'natural.' Our default condition is not one of
contentment.

It is entirely incorrect to say that if you do nothing, let
go or drop out then you will default to a 'natural' state of contentment. The
exact opposite is true, in fact.
If you seek contentment you are required to
engage in a constant, relentless struggle with nature and reality (required by
your essential nature, that is).

Disengaging with this struggle, as you
might expect, rapidly produces discontentment closely followed by unhappiness,
pain and then death. All the balls come tumbling to the ground and the audience
holds it breath, wondering if this is a joke or whether they are witnessing a
disaster.

Books, courses and religions which claim that man's 'natural'
state is one of happiness are just plain wrong - as wrong as a book on juggling
which claims that the balls 'naturally' want to be in a neat arc and that your
task as a juggler is to 'get in touch' with this natural state and 'release' the
balls to 'do their own thing'...

Mankind's 'natural' state is one of
constant struggle to maintain equilibrium. His reward for this, if he masters
it, is contentment.

Does all this talk about 'constant struggle' put you
off? Perhaps you are thinking that happiness and even contentment are now well
out of your reach?

Not so.

Just because you are engaged in a
lifelong 'dance' with nature, does not mean that it is arduous, deeply painful
and harsh - although it can be these things if you get it wrong. The truth is
that it is possible to be content because our needs are not that difficult to
meet, particularly these days. Not easy, but not that hard either.
The reason
we feel such discontent, pain, unhappiness and angst is mainly because of false
information leading to erroneous and completely incorrect strategies for filling
our needs.

How to Become A Master of Life

Let's summarise the important things I have been explaining
to you:

1. You have many needs, both 'lower level' (e.g. food) and
'higher level' (e.g. love).

2. Your needs are the 'voice' of the organism
called a 'human being' telling you what it needs for survival as a human (not
survival at any level, e.g. as a cringing, naked half-starved beast.)

3.
Your needs are never filled, finally, for all time. They are cyclical. Your two
dozen (or so) needs cycle round and around. At any one moment, several are
urgently screaming at you, a few are muttering for attention and others are
satisfied - for now.

4. When a need is not filled, you feel discomfort
and then pain. This is the human organism's method of alerting the higher part
of your mind (the strategy part) to come up with some plans, pronto, for filling
that need.

5. If a need has been unfilled for a long time, when you
attend to it you feel a burst of an emotion we call 'joy.' This is your instant
reward for getting started. It is not a sustainable feeling.

6.
Gradually, as you master how to juggle your needs and respond to them in a
timely fashion, your reward is a feeling we call 'contentment.'

7. The
trick is to become a 'master of life' - a master juggler. This is not a
'natural' state. You need to work at it and practice it. You also need an
instructor. (If you have ever tried your hand at juggling, you will know it is
impossible to learn, by yourself, from first principles. But if someone shows
you the step-by-step method, then anyone can learn to juggle three balls in
around five hours. Five balls? Come back in five years!)

In case you have
not yet realised this fact, it is going to take time for you to become a ‘master
of life'.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

As the semester draws to a close, many college students are
starting to feel the pressure of completing projects, writing final papers,
giving presentations, and of course, studying for finals.

Add to that
holding down a job and you've got a perfect storm of stress. How to calm your
mind? Meditation may be the answer.

Scientific studies are increasingly
revealing some pretty amazing benefits of regular meditation practice, both for
the general public and students in particular.

Meditation can help you better deal with stress and may make
your life as a student healthier and happier overall, a great trade off for just
a few minutes of mindful thinking a day.

Read on to learn about some of the latest and most telling
studies on student meditation to learn the amazing benefits it can offer you
this finals season and beyond.

1. Meditation Improves Academic Achievement

A 2009 study of 189 students in California who were performing
below proficiency levels in English and math found that meditation actually
helped to improve their test scores on the California Standards Tests. Students
were asked to practice transcendental meditation twice a day over a three-month
period. At the end of that period, 41% of students participating in the study
showed improvement in both math and English scores, sometimes moving up an
entire performance level, compared with just 15% who didn't participate in the
program showing improvement.

2. Meditation Improves Brain Function in ADHD Students

Those who have ADHD may find meditation an effective method for
improving concentration and brain function, at least according to one study
published in The Journal of Psychology. A paper called "ADHD, Brain Functioning,
and Transcendental Meditation Practice" appeared in the journal just last year,
showcasing the results of a study that followed a group of middle school
students with ADHD as they participated in a program that asked them to meditate
twice a day for three months. At the end of the three-month period, students
reported 50% reductions in stress, anxiety, and ADHD symptoms. Researchers also
found improved brain functioning, increased brain processing, and improved
language-based skills among ADHD students who practiced transcendental
meditation.

3. Meditation Reduces Academic Stress

Several studies have been conducted on the effect of meditative
practices on reducing academic stress, all with a similar finding: it works. In
2007 researchers at SIU in Carbondale, Ill. released a multi-year study on 64
post-baccalaureate medical students who participated in a deep breathing
meditation program. Students in the study were found to have reduced perceptions
of test anxiety, nervousness, self-doubt, and concentration loss. Another study
of students at American University had similar results, finding that students
who participated in three months of transcendental meditation practice reported
lower levels of stress (as well as increased concentration, more alertness, and
greater resistance to the physical effects of stress, as well as brain function
changes) during finals, often the most stressful part of the academic year.

4. Meditation Improves the Integrity and Efficiency of
Connections in the Brain

It should come as no surprise that meditation practice can
cause physical changes in the structure of the brain; monks have been saying
this for years. Yet a surprisingly small amount of meditation can have an
impact, even with as little as 11 hours of meditating. A 2010
study looked at 45 University of Oregon students, having 22 of them participate
in an integrative body-mind meditation training program while the control group
simply completed a relaxation program. The IBMT students were found to have
changes in the fibers in the brain area related to regulating emotions and
behavior, changes which became clear via brain imaging equipment with just 11
hours of practice. The same changes were not seen in the control group.
Researchers believe that meditation may help students to better control their
actions, resolve conflict, and manage stress by actually physically changing the
brain connections that regulate these functions.

5. Meditation Reduces Drug & Alcohol Abuse

It's no secret that many college students go overboard with
drugs and alcohol, many binging on potentially dangerous substances multiple
nights a week. Yet meditation practice may help limit the desire to engage in
these activities, a study in Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly reveals. Looking at
both students and adults, the study found that daily transcendental meditation
practice greatly reduced both substance abuse problems and antisocial behaviors.
The results held true for all classes of drugs including illegal substances,
alcohol, cigarettes, and prescription medications, with meditation being in many
cases two or three times more effective than traditional drug prevention and
education programs.

6. Meditation Reduces Behavior Incidents &
Absenteeism

In 2003, researchers Vernon Barnes, Lynnette Bauza, and Frank
Treiber set out to study the effects of meditation on adolescents, specifically
looking at the way it could potentially reduce stress and affect school
infractions. Their results were pretty striking. Forty-five high school-aged
African-American students were studied, some in a control group and others
practicing transcendental meditation on a daily basis for four months. At the
end of the study, the researchers found that the meditation group had lower
levels of absenteeism, lower levels of behavior incidents at school, and lower
levels of suspension. On the flip side, these behaviors actually increased in
the group that didn't meditate, suggesting that the meditation helped reduce the
psychological stress, emotional instability, or hostility that was leading to
negative and often self-destructive behaviors in these teens.

7. Meditation Makes Students Happier and Boosts
Self-Esteem

Meditation might not just help your studies, it might also help
you be happier and more satisfied as well. Researchers at the University of
Michigan found 60 sixth-graders to participate in a study, asking a group of
them to take part in daily practice of transcendental meditation over a
four-month period. At the end of the study, researchers reported that students
had undergone some positive changes in emotional development, with students
getting higher scores on affectivity, self-esteem, and emotional competence than
when they started the program and when compared to their peers who did not
meditate.

8. Meditation Has Heart Health Benefits

Meditation is as good for your body as it is for your mind, a
study at American University reports. A study published by the university in
conjunction with the Maharishi University of Management found that regular
transcendental meditation helps to reduce blood pressure, anxiety, and
depression among college students. The study chose 298 students at random to
either be part of the meditation group or a control group, with a subset of
students at risk for hypertension also analyzed. After three months, students
were measured on blood pressure, psychological distress, and coping ability.
Students who were formerly at-risk of hypertension showed a major change in
blood pressure, associated with a 52% lower risk of developing hypertension in
later years.

9. Meditation Reduces Depression and Anxiety

Feeling a little overwhelmed with college life? You're not
alone. Studies are demonstrating that meditation may offer one solution to
better coping with the stress, anxiety, and even depression that many college
students experience. Research at Charles Drew University in LA and the
University of Hawaii in Kohala found that adults who participated in a
transcendental meditation program showed significant reductions in depressive
symptoms (an average of 48% lower than the control group), even those who had
indications of clinically significant depression. Similar results have been
found in students, with decreases in depression and anxiety symptoms at
significant levels after participating in a meditation program.

10. Meditation May Increase Intelligence

A study done by the Maharishi University of Management suggests
that meditation is a great way to work out your brain and that it might even
have positive effects on intelligence when practiced regularly. Looking at three
different studies, the university found that high school students who
participated in a transcendental meditation program had significant increases in
creativity and intelligence levels, compared to those who took part in a napping
or contemplative meditation program. Students in the transcendental meditation
group saw increases in brain function across the board, but most dramatically in
measurements of creative thinking, practical intelligence, and IQ.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

The state of the economy has left many people and families worried about money. From paying bills to finding a job to coping with high medical costs, it can be hard to think of anything else when financial woes come your way. It's no secret that stress from finances can play a big role in changing your mental state, causing mood swings or even depression, but many may not realize what a marked effect it can also have on your physical well-being. Stress, whether from finances or other conflicts in your life, can do a number on your overall health, often in ways that you may not even realize are related to stress. If you're going through a stressful financial situation, make sure you take good care of your body, take time to relax, and get help to make sure these harmful physical effects don't take a toll on you.

1 Lost sleep

One of the earliest signs that stress is affecting your body is insomnia. Lack of sleep can cause some immediate effects on the body that can make getting through the day pretty hard, something no financially stressed person needs on top of everything else. While there may not be a way to get more sleep without getting rid of what's stressing you, you can set yourself up for better rest with a good bedtime routine every night.

2 Less money for preventative care

There is no way around it, health insurance is expensive. For those facing financial problems, it can be one of the first things cut from the budget, or may simply be lost along with exiting a job. Whatever the case may be, lack of insurance most often leads to lack of preventative care, or any care at all. Those worried about running up huge medical bills may not be as willing to head to the doctor when they see troubling signs or early indications of bigger problems.
3 Increased levels of anxiety and depression

Anxiety and depression are mental effects of stress, but they can have some physical manifestations as well. Those who are chronically stressed may begin to have panic attacks, shortness of breath, chronic fatigue, insomnia, and increased aches and pains throughout the body. These symptoms are related both to the underlying stress and to the depression and anxiety it may cause.

4 A greater risk of cancer, heart disease, and stroke

Stress is hard on the body, especially chronic stress, and can lead to some very serious health issues if not kept in check. Among the scariest of these is an increase in your risk of developing cancer, heart disease, and stroke. Part of this may be due to those who are stressed engaging in unhealthy behaviors like drinking and smoking, but scientists think there may be a stronger correlation. Chronic stress may weaken the immune system and put undue pressure on internal organs and processes, which can lead to a variety of serious medical conditions down the road.

5 Increased heart rate and blood pressure

Think about something that stresses you out? Does your heart beat faster? Stress can have a big effect on your heart and larger cardiovascular system. It can make your heart rate increase, which can in turn increase your blood pressure. Prolonged stress, and raised heart rate and blood pressure, can lead to heart arrhythmias and hypertension, both very serious heart conditions that could segue into heart attack, heart disease, or stroke. If stress is raising your blood pressure, take time out to just relax, meditate, or cool down throughout the day. Your heart will thank you for it.

When people are stressed, they rarely eat well. This can be part of what causes digestive problems, but stress itself can also take a toll and weaken the immune system, letting the digestive track become infected or inflamed. This can lead to greater instances of conditions like ulcers, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, and even heartburn. Those who had these conditions before their financial stress began may see them flare up or become worse under duress. While most digestive conditions are not caused by stress, many, if not all, can be exacerbated by it.

7 Hair loss

When you're already stressed out, the last thing you need to worry about is the state of your follicles, but you may not be able to avoid hair loss if you're under serious, prolonged anxiety from financial matters. There are three types of hair loss that can be associated with stress: alopecia areata, when white blood cells attack and kill hair follicles; telogen effluvium, when stress pushes growing hair into a resting phase; and trichotillomania, when a stressed person pulls out his hair as a way of coping with anxiety and tension. Hair loss can also lead to lowered self esteem, self image, and overall confidence, none of which are helpful in getting back on your financial feet.

8 Decreased libido

When you're worried about how to pay the rent, your love life may not be your biggest concern. And it's not just due to distraction. Stress can actually cause other factors that cause a nose-dive in libido, like lack of sleep, emotional distress, and weight gain. These all combine to make it hard to want to be intimate with a partner, even if you've never had problems with interest in sex in the past. Talking through your problems, getting rest, and enjoying intimate time can all help battle the libido-killing effects of stress.

9 Dental issues and gum disease

Stress seems to have an effect on every part of the body, and your teeth and gums are no exception. Stress can cause many to grind their teeth or pay little attention to oral hygiene and healthy eating, which may ultimately lead to a decline in oral health. It can also cause painful canker and cold sores, most likely due to a compromised immune system. Studies have also shown that even short-term stress can lead to increased levels of dental plaque, which can increase an individual's risk of developing gingivitis. You may not be able to get rid of all the stress in your life, but you can practice good dental hygiene, which will help reduce your risk of developing any painful or problematic issues with your oral health.

10 Increased risk of diabetes

Stress can cause a spike in blood sugar, which can affect both those who already have diabetes and those who don't in negative ways. While development of diabetes is often also related to other health factors like obesity and genetics, stress can often be a trigger that makes underlying conditions even worse and could push your body into a dangerous place, health-wise. For women, the link between stress and diabetes is stronger, so they need to be especially careful to monitor themselves for any early signs of the condition.

11 Breakouts and skin problems

Just when you want and need to look your best, stress makes you look your worst. When you're stressed, your brain releases stress hormones and your immune system may be weakened, both factors that can cause your skin to go haywire. Bacteria trapped in pores, which your body can't fight off, can lead to breakouts, and your skin may become oily, flushed, dry, or inflamed in response to stress. Some people may get hives or rashes, while others may have painful, sensitive skin. Whatever the result, stress is just plain bad for your skin, and it's essential to keep it moisturized and clean and eat well when pressure's high.

12 Weight gain or loss

Depending on your genetic makeup and personality, stress can cause either weight loss or weight gain. Some people may experience a loss of appetite when under stress that makes them eat less and lose weight. Others may eat more to help them cope with the emotional distress caused by financial issues. Cortisol, the body's stress hormone, can often play a role in weight gain by increasing appetite and holding weight in your mid-section — a holdover from our caveman days, when stress was a response to a danger that would have left us needing to replenish energy supplies. Studies have found that weight loss occurs more often as a response to short-term stress, while prolonged stresses generally cause weight gain.

13 Joint pain

Joint pain is often caused by chronic inflammation, which can be worsened when the body is under stress. Cortisol, the stress hormone, is an inflammatory agent and can leave all parts of the body, from the internal organs to the joints, inflamed and quite painful. For those who have noticed an increase in joint and muscle pain along with an increase in stress, there are several ways to help your body feel better. It can often be helpful to avoid eating sweets and foods with a lot of carbs as these can cause additional inflammation. Instead, seek out omega-3s in your foods, which can help reduce inflammation. Exercise can also help to loosen up painful joints.

14 Coping with stress through unhealthy behaviors

Studies have shown that people under stress often engage in unhealthy drinking, drug use, and overeating. All of these behaviors can have serious health effects that can last well after a stressful event is over, and drinking and drug use, if done in excess, could even lead to death, paralysis, or other very serious effects. While these activities may lead to short-term reductions in stress, they offer little in long-term resolutions of stress, and can actually increase stress if they lead to a loss of a job, serious health issues, or financial problems. Those who are having difficulty coping with financial issues should seek out someone to talk to and engage in other, healthier methods of coping like exercise.

15 Shortness of breath

Shortness of breath generally freaks people out, and for good reason. It could be an early sign of a serious health issue. It can, however, also be a side effect of prolonged stress. Stress can lead to panic attacks, which can cause chest pressure and shortness of breath. It can also increase your risk of conditions like heart disease, which sometimes have the side effect of shortness of breath. Those who have asthma or other breathing problems may find that their condition is worsened considerably when under stress. Anytime you are experiencing shortness of breath, visit a doctor to ensure it is not a serious condition that requires immediate treatment.

About Me

Since 1995, Stress Less® (www.stress-less.com) has been helping folks around the world to feel better and to get into control of their health, both mentally and physically .
The blog authors are various staff members and consultants who have a few things to say about the trends,products and programs in stress management.